You will find everyone here welcoming & very helpful. I lived in NM as a young bride & mother (many, many years ago) moving there from Bakersfield. I had helped my aunt & mom bake as a teen but had never baked on my own until I moved to what we lovingly referred to as Timbuktu Nowhere New Mexico. I started baking my Italian family's bread recipe & learned from neighbor's how to make tortillas, sopapillas & Indian fry bread. Another neighbor gave me my first sourdough starter & I was hooked & have been baking ever since. I hope you have as many wonderful experiences, in & out of the kitchen, as I had.

If you have questions there will be someone here who can answer them, problems there will be someone here to help you solve them & everyone will be supportive & encouraging.

up north. I lived there for several years, Dixon, Taos, and Arroyo Hondo before moving to Ventero (an extremely small spot of dust, 6 miles north of Amalia) incredible beauty and wonderful people who were very helpful to this old, hermit gringo who painted the New Mexican landscape for a few years before returning back to the practice of law in Oklahoma. I just bought Carol Field's bake book last week and was reading it before deciding it was time to check email. In fact, I have a batch of Pane di Como rising at the moment. It's late so I suspect I'll put it in the fridge and let it rise overnight. I'll be curious to see if the retarding adds the extra elements of flavor I get with my Medium Rye and Oklahoma red hand milled wheat bread which is also the two major ingredients of my starter, turned biga.

Have fun here, New, it's a wonderful place to learn and meet new "bread" friends literally from around the world who don't mind letting you "mine" their rich experiences in the kitchen and their travels.

Please say "hello" to the high country for me if you get a chance.

Almost forgot, what were your most favorite recipes from The Italian Baker?

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